Bennington
MILLINGTON, David
Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 235
(extracted from a section on the history of Shaftsbury, Bennington County,
Vermont)
David MILLINGTON, a descendant of one of the "Green Mountain Boys," was the
first inventor of wax grafting. Previous to his invention, there was no other
method but the application of mud, swingling tow and rags; after some years
of study and experience he perfected the system, and for very many years,
Shaftsbury, in the months of April and May, was almost depopulated from the
exodus of grafters, from forty to fifty teams, and from eighty to one hundred
men going annually in every direction throughout the New England and some of
the western States. Gov. HALL, when a boy, learned the art of grafting of
Mr. MILLINGTON, being in fact his first apprentice, and although most of his
time since then ahs been spent at the bar, the bench, and in the halls of
Congress, a Commissioner in California, and in the gubernatorial chair, yet
he has not forgotten how to make good pippins grow on a crab apple tree.
Submitted by Cathy Kubly